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NEC DELIVERS LIVE IMAGE IN IIHF ICE HOCKEY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

NEC and Trend Channel jointly arranged live images from the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Helsinki, Finland to show all over the Hartwall Arena and Hall of Fame restaurant.

Infront Sports & Media owns the rights to publish, process and distribute the Ice Hockey World Championship and many other major sports events. For Infront it was important to have high quality AV technology showing in the restaurants, guest suites, press centre and other premises to match the high profile of the championship.

FUNCTIONALITY AND ADDED VALUE

“Infront is the world’s second biggest sports marketing company and manages media and marketing rights for international top sport events, such as the FIFA World CupTM, the eni FIM Superbike World Championship and the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup.”

”At the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship we wanted to have an AV partner that could offer great performance and added value for both our partners and the audience. The profile of the event was very high so we chose partners that could match that level. NEC and Trend Channel have proved to be perfect partner matches.”

”Elegant displays and video walls showing high quality live images from the events gave our partners the opportunity to publicise their products and brand. The implementation ensured professional communication, suitable for the atmosphere of the event.”

”We are delighted with the service that we received from NEC and Trend Channel,” continued Kumpulainen. ”The implementation matched our vision and the execution was very fast. Wanting temporary and versatile AV solutions to cover a large area was very demanding, but everything worked as agreed and planned - perhaps even a little ahead of plan”

IMPLEMENTING THE PROJECT IN A TIGHT PARTNERSHIP

Trend Channel is a Finnish company specialising in AV technology that makes digital signage and AV systems for shops, offices and outdoor use.

”In the case of Hartwall Arena, NEC delivered the monitors and video projectors for the games and we took care of the installation and system,” said Jussi Jalonen, Sales Director, Trend Channel Oy. ”NEC is a top international brand, the products represent the best quality on the market and the product range is comprehensive, so NEC was a natural choice for this project."

”For this event Infront wanted to use high quality professional displays, suitable for reliable and continuous use. The elegance of the monitors was also important. NEC monitors are suitable for 24/7 use, they are discreet and elegant and even the company logo is not overly apparent,” commented Jalonen.

55-inch LED backlight NEC monitors were used as individual displays. The advantages of the displays are full-HD resolution, bright and crisp image and low power consumption. There were around 70 individual displays in the Esa Ilmari (right), Tero Kumpulainen and Jussi Jalonen think that the AV system in the Ice Hockey World Championships is at least on the level of the original vision. The four monitors of the video wall show live TV broadcast, the monitor in lower right corner shows broadcast from Stockholm and one monitor is reserved for the communication of a partner.

Arena area.

The video walls were built from 55-inch thin-bezel NEC monitors. The total width of the seam between the monitors is only 5.7 mm – almost invisible from a distance. The monitors were built into six monitor walls where one display formed of 2 x 2 monitors showed a live TV broadcast from the Arena, meanwhile one monitor showed a TV broadcast from Sweden and another was reserved for partner content. There were ten video walls in total.

Besides this, there were five robust, 11,000 ANSI lumen video projectors in the Hall of Fame restaurant. At one end of the room there was a single display screen and at the other end an eight-metre wide large screen similar to the video walls. The large image on this screen was projected with two projectors stacked vertically to be visible in the room during bright, sunny weather.

A GOOD AND VISIBLE NEC REFERENCE

”The Ice Hockey World Championship were a splendid reference for us,” said Esa Ilmari, Country Sales Manager, NEC Finland. ”We have already gained new contacts, this will bring us new business and we have a great opportunity to network with potential clients.”

”This was really a big event and marketing at its best,” commented Ilmari. ”The event is splendid, it takes place in Finland and – best of all – it takes place in Finland next year as well. This year the finals took place in Helsinki and some of the preliminary games took place in Stockholm. Next year the main responsibility for the games lies with Stockholm and some of the preliminary games will take place in Helsinki. And NEC will be on site in both cities, during both years.

In spite of the difficult lighting circumstances the high light power of NEC projectors together with high reflective Trend Screen assured bright and crisp image.

The press centre is one of the important areas of the Games and there are also NEC displays to keep the editors up to date at all times.

Outside the Hartwall Arena there was the Hall of Fame tent restaurant for 1,600 people, with free entrance for anybody. Numerous NEC displays and robust NEC video projectors kept the audience up to date.